10 steps to prepare your class for Word Mania Round 1

The world’s biggest online literacy competition is back. Word Mania 2018 is less than a week away and with £10,000 in prizes up for grabs students around the world are getting ready to participate in the word-building madness.

With just over a week to go until Round 1 of the competition starts, we’ve provided a checklist to make sure your class is ready to participate.

1. Register

If you haven’t already, register your school for Word Mania 2018! Students who attend schools with LiteracyPlanet accounts will have automatic access to the competition. Otherwise, teachers can register quickly and easily at www.wordmania.com/.

2. Update student details

Make sure your student details are up to date before Round 1 kicks off. Simply access your teacher dashboard and click on this ‘My Students’ tab. Here you will be able to update student details and add additional students.

3. Prepare student's devices

To use Word Mania a student’s desktop browser or mobile devices must adhere to a number of requirements. For a full rundown, clickhere.

4. Create student cards

Access your teacher dashboard and click on 'My Students' to bring up a list of all the students under your name. Once you’re sure these details are correct, click on the green cog and select cards.

This will generate a PDF file that contains cut-out cards with each student’s individual password and login details.

5. Send parents the Word Mania letter

We’ve also provided a letter in our starter kit that you can send to the parents of the students participating. This will let them know about the competition, and encourage them to get their kids practising at home!

6. Check your students' scores on the leaderboards

From your teacher dashboard, click on the 'Word Mania' tab. The first thing you will see are the Word Mania leaderboards. This page shows you where you school is currently ranked by participation and skill.

7. Watch the how-to videos

Anything you’re still confused about? LiteracyPlanet has provided a range of how-to videos designed to make life easier and answer the question of any teacher participating in Word Mania 2018. You can find them here.

8. Try the creative activities

Word Mania isn’t just about word-building. Get your students involved in the Word Mania creative activities, including our short story competition and colouring competition. For more information, click here.

9. Share your #wordmania moments

We’re also looking for schools to share their best Word Mania moments! Whether it’s a high score, mind-bogglingly long word or a hotly contested Word Challenge, we want to see how your school is getting involved!

Share your best Word Mania moment to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #wordmania.

10. Practise, practise, practise!

Now’s your last chance to get some practise in before the competition officially starts and the more classes from each year level participating, the greater your school’s chances are to win up to £10,000 in prizes.

To sign up for Word Mania or register your school’s interest, click here.